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Timeline History. 35,000 – 700 BC Paleolithic Age.
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35,000 – 700 BCPaleolithic Age • Ice Age artists modeled goddesses and animal figurines, incising lines and leaving their fingertip and fingernail impressions in the clay. Figurine creation was widespread with examples discovered at Dolni Vestonice, The Czech Republic (22,000 BC), Japan (15,000 BC), and Siberia (12,000 BC). Earliest ceramics may have been used in social activities or religious rituals that involved the making and firing of these images. The firing event may have included the figurines and wet pieces of clay, which would have exploded in the fire making for a dramatic yet playful performance.
Venus of Willendorf • Austria • C. 25,000-20,000 BC • Fertility Fetish • Height 4 3/8” • stone
Goddess of Dolni VestoniceCzech Republic23,000 BCClay figurine
Early pottery baked in an open fire • Typically black and round-bottomed
6000 BCMiddle East • Earliest signs of settled life developed on the plateaus of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, and expanded to the Tigres Euphrates river area in Mesopotamia when people learned to practice irrigation around 5000 BC. Potters produced vessels by coiling long rolls of clay on top of a flat base or by pressing a slab of clay over a mold, such as a round stone or gourd. A paddle and anvil were used in shaping pots. Slip coatings (fine liquid clay) were also applied to vessels and burnished to attain a smooth surface. Two pottery-making traditions developed: plain, undecorated, dark burnished ware and ware decorated with incised or impressed designs in simple zigzag patterns and angular lines. Decorations were painted red and black with clay oxides.
Copper began to be used as well as stone. Handmade painted pottery varied from reddish brown on a pinkish background during the early stages to plain grey, black or brown clay during the later stage of this period. • Painted terracotta vessel from Hacilar, Turkey • Chalcolithic Period
4500 BCMesopotamia • In Mesopotamia, potters learned how to control the atmosphere in the kiln(furnace for firing clay) in order to obtain oxidation (increased oxygen resulting in red veneer). Pottery-making became more sophisticated as clays were refined and prepared by decanting suspension(the process of adding water to clay in order to allow the larger particles and organic materials to separate out while standing and then gently pouring off the liquid without stirring up the sediment
Clay figure of woman with traces of paint, ca. 6000 B.C., Mesopotamia, 5.11 x 4.5 cm
Clay beaker decorated with geometric designs and images of ibexes, from Susa (now Shusa, Iran), ca. 5000 B.C., 28.9 cm high; 16.4 cm diameter, • During the years 6000-5000 B.C, the Pre-Sumerian period, Southern Mesopotamia mass-produced pottery such as the beaker above. Vessels and other objects of fired clay were found in great abundance at sites near the Euphrates River. They had simple—even crude--decoration and were produced on a fast potter’s wheel. Wheels were used for war chariots by this period as well. The chariots were drawn by onagers (wild donkeys). (Samuel Noah Kramer, History Begins at Sumer, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1981.)
4000 BC The First Cities, Middle East • Builders in the Middle East constructed cities using clay bricks. Officials wrote on clay tablets to chronicle city records as well as agricultural and trade information. Potters developed the pottery wheel and crafted earthenware molds, which increased production and transformed the making of pottery. These events led to craft specialization.
Babylonian flood account, 2,000 B.C. • The story of a great Flood is not only recorded in the Bible. The Babylonian flood account is recorded on a 4,000 year-old clay tablet. It is very similar to Noah's story, but the Babylonian story may be much older, from even before 3,000 B.C. It is often referred to as the Gilgamesh Epic. Together with other ancient records of a great flood from other civilizations, the story of this ancient event may have been passed down orally from generation to generation in several different civilizations. The Gilgamesh Epic was found in an ancient Assyrianlibrary, and is now located in the British Museum.
The city of Ur - in Mesopotamia around 3,000B.C. • Ur was the city where Abraham lived. It's excavation in 1922 revealed that it was a highly civilized city, complete with a complex government, busy trade and traffic. Receipts and contracts were used in commercial activity. The city's infrastructure includes town drains, streets, two-story houses, and a great temple tower. http://www.faithhelper.com/otarch1.htm
3000 BCFirst Pottery Made in South America • Prehistoric people living in farming villages located in the Amazon Basin (Brazil) created the earliest pottery known in the Western Hemisphere. This original red-brown pottery was decorated with simple lines and painted patterns.
2700 BCThe First Glaze, Egypt • Egyptian potters discovered an alkaline glaze-forming clay body, Egyptian Paste or Egyptian Faience. This clay was a composite of crushed quartz mixed with soda and calcium salts, which produced a blue-colored surface glaze when fired. Egyptian Paste was used for ceremonial vessels, jewelry, and small sculptures.
Hippopotamus, Middle Kingdom, Egypt 1784-1570 BCBlue faience/Egyptian Paste
Faience is a glazed non-clay ceramic material or silica, composed of crushed quartz or sand, with small amounts of lime, and either natronor plant ash. • Its main ingredient was quartz, obtained from sand, or crushed pebbles to which was added an alkali, a bit of lime and ground copper as colorant. Egypt is rich in silica, in the form of desert sand, but for faience-making, certain sand sources were considered superior to others. Sand is not pure silica, as it contains impurities such as chalk, limestone or iron.
The silica forms the bulk of the body, the material from which the object shape is formed. Ground silica/sand is not easy to form, and even though water is added to help shaping, the finished product will crumble when dry. Adding lime and soda helps to cement the quartz grains together as it dries. But the main strengthening factor is in the firing.The body is coated with a soda-lime-silica-glaze, most commonly a bright blue-green color due to its use of copper. When fired, the quartz body developed its typical blue-green glassy surface. Other colors were eventually possible, such as white, yellows, reds, and even marbled browns, blacks and other hues.
2655 BCBanshan Culture, China • Neolithic craftsmen fashioned painted pottery jars by using the clay coil and paddling technique. After firing, burnished surfaces were gracefully painted with red and black pigments in spiral patterns and designs. Early Chinese pottery was fired in kilns that dug into the ground.
China, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, Banshan type, late-3rd millennium BCHeight: 17 1/2 inches, 44.5 cm
China, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, Banshan type, mid-3rd millennium BCHeight: 19 inches, 48.2 cm
Narrow-necked jar with vertical handlesChinese, Majiayao culture, Neolithic period, mid-3rd millenium B.C
2500-1500 BCJomon Period, Japan • Jomon (cord impressions) ware made throughout Japan during the Japanese Neolithic Age. It was characterized by elaborate coil-built vessels fashioned from unrefined clay. The clay often contained organic matter, pebbles, and shell fragments that added textural excitement to the ware’s coil construction. Elaborate flaring tops, fanciful rims, and cross-hatching contributed to the visual drama of this distinctive style.
The Jomon Period10,000-300 BCEJapan • Early “Jomon” (Rope Pattern) Pottery
Narrow-bottomed, flaring tops of Jomon used for ceremonies and religious rituals
2500-1100 BCMinoan Culture, Crete • On the island of Crete, Minoans used terra-cotta pipes in drainage systems for their baths. They built huge vessels, more than five feet tall, to store grain, olive oil, and food. Their pots were distinctively decorated with naturalistic designs of marine life and plants. Masterful sailors, the Minoans traded pottery vessels filled with oil and wine for tin from Asia Minor, copper from Cyprus, and luxury goods from Egypt.
Jug from Ayios Onoufrios. • Early Minoan I or beginning of Early Minoan II • c. 2500. Clay.
A beaker jug in Kamares style • Middle Minoan IIA • 1800 BC.
Original Minoan Flask, 13“ • 1500BC
Minoan octopus Vase • 1500BC
Minoan Amphora • 1500 BC
3 Handled Octopus Vase • Minoan
Original Pythos (storage vessel) • 16" (40 cm) Tall • 1450 BC
Original Minoan Amphora • 1200BC
King Minos lived in the Palace of Knossos on the Island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea
The Palace of Knossos • The palace of the Minoan king on the island of Crete, in the town of Knossos. • These ruins are amazingly well preserved from about 1700 BC.
